Changing Gears

Last night Frankie and I went to the Shanghai Circus for the first time. Since we live right around the corner, we pass by the big golden golf ball building more than twice a day yet it wasn't until last night that we finally went inside. Since there is no way that I could adequately describe the performance, I will just say it was mind blowing. It was a lot less circus and a lot more "Cirque Du Soleil gone Chinese". The acrobats were incredible, there was live music and the visual treats were amazing. I can't decide whether it was the guy being flung into the air on a single stilt, catapulted by two other guys landing on the opposite side of the sea-saw who subsequently did a massive back flip and landed perfectly or the eight motorcyclists in a spherical cage that amazed me the most. It doesn't matter. It was the whole experience that made the evening.


Last week we finished up our client projects. Nana and I presented for HaPe on behalf of the rest of our group in the middle of Zha Bei Park on Thursday afternoon. On Friday we had a group evaluation here at our apartment. It felt great to round off the project with some focused reflection and feedback. We can now move gracefully into the next phase of the outpost feeling that we have properly closed the first chapter down.

While I was in Taiwan over Easter vacation I read a great book. It's called "Synchronicity" and it was written by Joseph Jaworski (edited by Betty Sue Flowers and includes an introduction by Peter Senge). My teammate Daniel lent the book to me and the timing was perfect. I keep noticing that things come across my path that leads me to explore the question "What is leadership?".

Tomorrow we have the day off to reflect as we are now in the transition period from the first part of the outpost to the next. We are to think about the following points:

On a Personal Level:
1. How can you experiment with leadership? -create your own definition, role, and what task? Describe what is the best role for you in the upcoming project for you to learn and experiment with to achieve your own ambitions for the outpost and to start thinking about your area of focus for the third year.
2. Explore your insights from the outpost so far, what you can learn
from these and what ambitions they create in you for the remainder
of the outpost.


On a Team Level:
1. How can Team13 be most efficient?
2. What role would you like to take in order for this to happen?
(based on the above insights)

I also just found out that I will be participating in the workshop at the Cape Cod Institute this summer entitled "Wizard, Warrior and Leading With Soul". The workshop will be held by author, teacher, consultant and speaker Lee Bolman. I can't wait!

I've made a little slideshow with a bunch of photographs from the outpost thus far. A couple might be repeats, but mostly they are fresh images:

Thanks again for the comments. It's so nice to know what you think.
Sending my love to you all!

Taitung on a Wednesday

Last Friday I was in the middle of Shanghai gazing at concrete and skyscrapers. Today I am relaxing in the sweet coastal city of Taitung. It's beautiful here...hot, tropical, misty and colorful. Yesterday Caleb and I took his motorcycle on a cruise up into the mountains. Butterflies danced beside me as I leaned into the corners and inhaled the flower-perfumed air. Clouds hovered at the tops of the mountains but the skies overhead remained bright blue for the rest of the day. We had dinner at the Botanical Gardens where Caleb's girlfriend works. I'm so happy I headed over here for this little vacation. I'll be sure to put up some more photos when I get back to SH. for now, enjoy these ones:


Reflecting on leadership in Century Park, Pudong (Shanghai)


The ladies leaving the park on Friday


Taiwan, West coast...The rest are in and around Taitung (Where Bags lives)

Brown rice and a rice cooker

Last Monday I returned to Shanghai after having spent more than a week away with my project group in Ningbo, Beilun and Anji. It was wonderful to come back to a familiar city and to a cozy apartment, which in the given context truly feels like home. In order to maintain sanity we chose to take the day off on Tuesday. I slept in and awoke to the warmth of the sun shining in through my window. A couple loads of laundry and a few phone calls later I headed out to run some errands around town. It’s so nice to have a rhythm.

Side-track regarding phone calls:
Two weeks ago my friend Anna told me about a discovery she had made. Since I now have experienced the brilliance of the concept, so I thought I would share it. Rebtel is a way for people to call internationally from their phones/cell phones by only paying local fees plus a very small international fee, which is paid over the Internet. Rates differ from country to country but generally they are quite low, challenging any international calling card or plan out there.

Usually I make my international calls from Skype. However doing this requires that I have an Internet connection with sufficient bandwidth and of course a functioning computer. Lately this has been challenge within itself. With Rebtel I am able to make calls from my cell phone anywhere, anytime for very little money. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

So how does it work? You log into Rebtel.com. You add contacts. Then a local number from your area (in my case, Shanghai) is generated that represents your contact’s phone number. So when I now call my boyfriend Ethan in the States for instance, I dial a Shanghai phone number instead and Rebtel connects me to him. To add to the glory of it all, they hooked me up with 310 free minutes just for signing up. I haven’t paid anything other than the small local fees yet. Plus there are special promotions popping up all the time. Ok I guess I have blabbed about this for long enough. If you want to know more, take a look at their webpage and give it a try.

So as I was saying, after more than month, I have finally found some sort of everyday rhythm. The first couple weeks in Shanghai I lived in a hotel. Now I have an apartment. In the beginning I went from one place to another not having a clue where they were positioned in relation to each other. Now I have a general overview of the city. The first month was about wearing clothes for as long as humanly possible. Now that I have a washing machine (and have a translated key for what the Chinese characters on the buttons mean), I can wash laundry at my leisure. Ahh luxury!

I’ve discovered that the taxi drivers aren’t necessarily frustrated when you give them an address; they just want to make sure that they know exactly where to bring you. I’ve found the pure joy in having small conversations on the street- from the ones I have with the flower seller to the family who has the vegetable stand around the corner. I have brown rice in my kitchen. And a rice cooker. And that just makes me happy.

This week we are going to work on our projects like mad wo/men. We have one week off for Easter Vacation (March 14th - 23rd) and after that we just have one week before we have to present our final products.

My little rest and relaxation will be taking place in Taiwan this time around. Caleb Portnoy (from Wellfleet) has been living out there for quite a while and I’m taking him up on his invitation for a visit. It’s great that so many of my friends and family are spread around this globe so that no matter where I am...I always tend to have someone nearby. (Right now I have Bags in Taiwan, my cousin Zack in Hong Kong, Tristan in South Korea and Katy heading to Bali). For better or worse, it sure is a globalized world we are living in!

Zai jian!
***************
Where's Taiwan?

Taiwan is that orange island east of China


I'll be flying in to Kaohsiung (Taiwan's second largest city) and then heading east to Taitung where Caleb is living.

From our hotel room in Beilun:


At the old library in Ningbo:




At HaPe, workers sand down pieces of doll houses:





Working hard/playing hard in the showroom:


In Anji:


Presentation of ideas and feedback session at the Bamboo factory:


Back in Shanghai:


Home sweet home:


My room:


The view from the balcony:


That's my window there on the left:


The electronic market at Xu Jia Hui:


Pudong by day:


Frankie sporting her new haircut and glasses:


The old town:


Pudong by night:


Downtown Shanghai: Nanjing Road

Thank you for the comments!

It turns out that I am able to read your comments after all. It has been so nice hearing from some of you. Thank you thank you. So please, if you are out there in blog-reader land I would love to have your contributions on this page!

I hope everyone is well. I am currently in the midst of a PACKED week of project work. I have been in Ningbo and Anji visiting the HaPe headquarters and the bamboo forests while working with my group. It has been amazing. We have been welcomed warmly with great hospitality. We have gained great insight into the company and the visions upon which it has been built. I'm going to put up a few photographs now but as always, there will be more to come! I'm signing out now after yet another long and beautiful day.

Love, Sky


P.S. I have rosy cheeks from the sunshine. It was spectacular today. Sun rays coming down through the canopy of bamboo plants....Ahhh... It's still winter but I feel summer is on it's way.